


Love in So many Words

by Pyxie_Dust



Series: The Million Lives of Jaime and Melissa [3]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, OC Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Baby, F/F, Getting Back Together, Nonbinary Character, Post-Relationship, mentions of past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 15:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyxie_Dust/pseuds/Pyxie_Dust
Summary: There was supposed to be a breakup at some point in the rp, but we felt bad and we're in the works of fixing it, but this is how I think it would have gone as they tried to get back together. At least, from the baby's point of view.





	Love in So many Words

In the quiet of the evening, as the parent tucked in the child for bed, the little one stares up with the eternal inquisitiveness that colors her eyes. “Nibi,” she asks as the comforter is tucked up just beneath her chin, “What’sh love like?” 

A kiss is pressed to her brow, and a hand gently strokes her hair back, “It is like the silent echo where laughter once lingered. The gentle remembrance of warmth from a fire long put out. It is the dark comfort that are shadows dancing along the walls of your bedroom.” Another kiss is pressed to her skin, this one to her cheek as she yawns and settles in amongst the pillows and toys. 

“It is the way I tell you goodnight Logan, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

~*~

During the Hustle and Bustle of rush hour, when waiters run about between tall monoliths of tables surrounded by the pedestals just shorter than them so that the customers might sit. Balancing delicate worlds of ice and heat atop thin sheens of plastic, their feet following a practiced path, their facing adorning a practiced look. The little one eats her food on a table towards the back next to her Nibi, she holds a small weapon aloft for a moment before using it to spear the chicken off of her plate. Her eyes coast over to her Nibi, who sits next to her typing away on a laptop. Their hand goes up to brush back a stray bit of hair that is blocking their sight from the neverending stacks of black and white that is meant to depict numbers.

She leans against them, “Nibi,” she says through a mouth full of good food, “what’sh love like?” 

They stop typing and turn to her, giving a soft smile before turning their gaze out towards the empty pedestal across the room. “It’s the comfort of a set routine after a long day. Where your bones come to rest in the same spot, and the ache of time can roll off your shoulders. It’s the feeling of a common joke, or set of words that pass between the lips of someone familiar. How the sound they make tilt and whirl in your range of hearing in just the right way to get you to smile. It’s the last bit of wear settling into your skin as another day sets and you realize you’re just that much older.”  
  
They turn to look at her again and motion to her food, “It’s me, telling you that you need to finish your lunch, or you won’t get to play with your cousins later.” 

~*~

Through the tension of the moment, Logan hides behind her Nibi’s legs, confused and slightly afraid of the woman who has stumbled into the cabin. She stares at her Nibi with wide eyes and a shocked expression that mirrors the one on her Nibi’s face. There are words, shouts, and the appearance of blades more than a few times. She has never seen her Nibi look any sadder than when she saw the disappointment in their eyes after she had tried climbing the walls with her claws for the fifth time. Now her Nibi is nearly crying, even though everything that flies from their mouth is filled with anger.

Eventually, once the anger has died, and the arguments have gone mute, the calm settles back down into the Cabin. She looks up to her Nibi with wide eyes, still confused as to what has happened. They only give her a comforting smile before picking her up and carrying her towards the door. To distract herself, to distract her Nibi, she asks, “What’sh love like?” They look at her a moment, surprised at the question, and then they look back to the woman with her arms wrapped around her chest and her back facing them.

“It’s the tiniest bit of hope, that lingers despite all the sorrow you have been drowned in. It’s an old voice in the back of your mind that’s telling you to return to what it could have been, instead of moving on to what is. It’s knowing that the reason you hurt so much, is the reason you’ve felt so much joy.” One of their hands reaches out towards the door and pulls it open.

They are impacted with a cold blast of air, the view outside is completely obscured by a thick blanket of white. Her Nibi turns them about to get out of the wind and pushes with all their strength to close the door. Shutting them inside with the strange woman as they hold her close, “It’s knowing that we’re going to be stuck here for a little longer than planned.

~*~

Days go by, the storm abates slowly, and words are exchanged once more between the strange woman and her Nibi. Curt ones, quiet ones, sad ones, little flippant things that fly over her head, and heavy stones that weigh the cabin down. Most days she’s playing on the ground with her Nibi while this is happening, drawing things in the soft patches of earth that are slowly appearing as the wood rots away.

When they’re done she listens quietly to her Nibi, as they tell her stories to go with the pictures, one’s about a magical warrior called  _ Das Biest _ who had claws like her, and a wanderer called  _ Shadow _ that wielded silence in their gun. Many of the stories were scary, and most of them left her checking the darker corners and under the bed whenever it came for nap time. But she still liked them.

One day, as the last of the snow falls from the sky, she looks up at her Nibi with a familiar smile. They see the dimple along her cheek, the look in her eye, and return the smile, “Nibi?” 

“Yes sweetheart?”

The strange woman looks over, never having heard her voice sound like this before, “What’sh love like?”

They’re quieter this time around, taking a moment to think before answering, “Its patience, the long road that you take just so you can look back to see how far you’ve made it. It’s understanding, looking at every flaw and every scar and knowing that while some make you better, others are just holding you back. It’s… moving forward, taking the next step on the journey,” her Nibi looks over their shoulder at the strange woman, “Whether or not the person who was walking with you comes along.”

They look back towards Logan and offer a small smile, the likes of which she hasn’t seen before, “It’s telling you that today is our last day here, and that we’re going home tomorrow.”

~*~

She sits in the center of the rug in the living room next to the couch surrounded by her toys, and Jonathan, who is acting as a pillow behind her back. Picking up her stuffed teddy she raises it up and then makes to throw it at her Nibi, who is fast asleep on their stomach on the couch. Logan is bored, and hasn’t played with anyone other than Jonathan, and Jonathan got boring when he wouldn’t wrestle with her anymore. However, before she gets a chance to throw the toy, a hand grabs it out of her grip with a voice attached that says, “ah! No!” 

Logan pouts and turns to her Mommy, the strange woman from the cabin in the woods, and reaches out towards the toy, “teddy!” 

Her Mommy gives her a look, “You can’t wake up your Nibi, they’re very tired and they need their sleep.”

She pouts harder, “Teddy!”

“Promise me that you won’t throw it at Nibi first.”

She scrunches her nose up and crosses her arms over chest, with a huff she says, “Promishe.” 

“Ok then.”

The Teddy is returned and she cuddles it tight to her chest, trying to think of a different game to play. Meanwhile, her Mommy goes over to her Nibi and strokes back their hair so they can breathe a little easier as they sleep. They stir slightly, leaning into the touch and smiling before they drift off again.

Logan tilts her head to one side as she eyes the two of them, the question that she keeps asking raising up again. “Mommy,” she says, then laughs because of the way her Mommy jumps, “whatsh love like?” 

Melissa stares at Logan, she’d heard the question uttered before, many times in fact. It was surprising to her that a two year old could actually utter such a significant sentence. Jaime had told her she picked it up from watching TV while they were cleaning. A daughter on one of the shows she was watching asked the mother that, and Logan hadn’t been able to stop asking that since. So Melissa twists her mouth to one side and thinks for a moment on how best to answer. She’d seen Jaime answer in a myriad of ways, waxing poetic, talking bluntly, or if Logan wasn’t really paying attention, saying something completely ridiculous. 

However, she sees the way Logan is looking at her, how curious, how eager she is to hear her talk. “It’s…” Jaime’s hand, Logan’s Nibi’s hand, Melissa’s Partner’s hand, falls from beneath their head and dangling off the edge of the couch. Melissa takes it and smiles, “It’s comfort in a familiar surrounding. Someone who's always there for you during your darkest and your brightest, even if you don’t want them there to see it. It’s compromise, and being stubborn, and being angry because the other person wants to prioritize you and you want to prioritize them.”

“It’s fighting and screaming over things because the other is hurting and they won’t let you in because of that conflict of prioritizing. It’s trying to make everything work, everything better, in the most unhealthy way possible. Realizing it’s unhealthy together, and moving forward hand in hand. Its long nights of holding onto each other when the nightmares come, and releasing if only move your arms so you can hold each other tighter. Its the little things that make you smile, and the little things they don’t notice. Big things too, ones that make you so happy that you can’t stand it. Its…”  
  
She looks at Logan, who is still looking, still enraptured by her Mother, despite the fact that Melissa is ‘not very good with words.’ So, keeping hold of Jaime’s hand, she pulls Melissa in close and kisses the top of her daughter’s head, “It’s staying, and being scared, but knowing that you are here. That your Nibi is here, and never letting go again despite all of that.”


End file.
